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The Army’s latest security force assistance effort hit two big milestones in June: The 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade marked its first anniversary, as well as 100 days on the ground in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, back home, a second SFAB is training for future missions and three more are recruiting and readying to stand up — while lawmakers are raising questions about whether the Army should really be in the security force assistance business at all.

“I think it’s an important mission, let me first say that right up front,” retired Lt. Col. Nathan Freier, a professor with the Strategic Studies Institute at the Army War College and associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Army Times in a June 18 phone interview. “I would also say, at the same time … you have to recognize that resources are finite, that you have to prioritize based on strategic and operational demands.”

For now, the Army is still on a heading to stand up six total SFABs, five in the active component and one in the Army National Guard.

The 1st SFAB has been in Afghanistan for three months, and it has begun sharing its experiences there, through media engagements with commander Col. Scott Jackson…